1v1 ranked discussion.
No scrubs (hangin out the passenger side of his best friends ride, trying to holla at me!)

People were whining about T-55/T34 rushes before, other units buffed, meta game changes, nobody does this anymore due to heavy tanks being useful.

VSTI Spam - again heavy tanks stopped this in its tracks, though they're still great support units.

VABs + Chasseurs, Skots + Strelci? rushes - Still prevalent - always beatable. (not so much skots anymore)

VAB speed and cheap price still makes it hugely deadly though when carrying 10 french psychopaths.

http://www.wargamereplays.org/index.php?page=replay&id=668

Current meta seems to be for nato, (granted I dont play nato in ranked)

4 leo start + mephistos, a dash of infantry to taste, a couple of rolands or a vetted out chap, obviously luchs as recon, gazelle recon and a few AML mortars.

2 leo start + more of the above but with patton rise in there too.

2 leo start + a horde of VABs + Chasseurs.

Sometimes some special forces (deltas are rare, fernspaher/green jackets are the usual suspects) for rooting out command vehicles and AA.

Notice a lack of helicopters.
Notice a lack of long range artillery (until mid-late game when the aufs come out, but usually mortars are good enough) definitely no MRLOLS
Notice no ATGM infantry.
Zippos are map/situation dependent but generally pretty rare because they are so painfully slow.



Now I can't really speak for the pact side's meta as I dont play against them in ranked - but my deck usually consists of:

2T80V's
4 Strops in 2 groups
2 LAAD Igla
4 Empty bmp1ps
8 Motostrelki in Bmp1ps
Mi-9
2 TO-55
at least 1 PT- armoured recon

This is usually good enough to stand up to whatever doctrine the nato players throw against me but as you can see from my rank and elo, im far from a top end player (although I have beaten a few of the top 10)

As the map progresses I'll usually bring out vpzu/spets if I cant get eyes on their units easily enough
Akatsiyas as cheap impromtu mortars because of their excellent minimum and maximum range - plus they are relatively cheap, if they dig in with zippo lolfortresses, its time for a buratino.

Notice:

A lack of helicopters
A lack of ATGM infantry
A lack of rocket arty (Again the previous doctrine of SPAM ALL THE SMERCHES, has been largely phased out)

What do we take from this? AA is overpowered? Of course it isnt - if it was less powerful then chopper rushes (another thing of the past, but this isnt balance, its the playerbase getting better) would be prevalent

Are ATGM infantry useless? Yes - overpriced. nobody uses these in ranked. They use the quicker vab mephiso or Itow jeep. (I just use the bmp1s or maybe T62M's if the mood strikes me) They are also too easy to see. I dont have a clue how this could be balanced, maybe make them cheaper, I dont think they'd be spammable because they cant unload and dump alpha strikes like chasseurs/strelki can.

Is rocket arty useless? I dont think it is - it has its place in 3v3 and 4v4 lolfests and lets face it, 4 MRLS or Smerch firing a huge arc of rockets over your force and into the forests ahead of you looks pretty badass.


Are heavy tanks OP? (leo2 T80V)

I wouldnt say so because they are still vulnerable - side hits, ambushes, ATGM volleys and their price and availability even it out. Medium tanks though, they dont seem to have a role short of Patton Rises as leo screens and T62M as utility ATGM carriers.

Lighter tanks dont seem to have a role either again short of giving heavy tanks too many units to shoot at.


Well thats my take on the current metagame, discuss - higher ranks call me a scrub and tell me how wrong I am etc, you know the drill by now.

Very nice insight.

One question for the start, since I already used pretty much the same setup as u suggested for NATO:

Why Mephisto and not Jaguar 2?

Jaguar has better accuracy (while it doesent seem to help much, to be honest) and is tracked, which seems to provide a better offroad speed. He costs 60 instead of 40 from the Mephisto, but I thought its worth the price.

An which mortars do u use? I cannot say which works best for me right now. I spam the 20 point mortars because I can shoot during the whole game without reloading. But the higher range, accuracy and damage of the 45 point mortar is also fine... Dunno... Mass vs Range. What do u suggest?
Not only for 1on1 but also for normal multiplayer games.

EDIT:
And for the full vetted Chaparel: is this really worth it? I have the feeling like he still misses 4 of 4 missiles often. Same goes for that soviet 10/10 SAM.
Accuracy seems to be a very inaccurate attribute in this game While Leo2 with Acc 10 hit nothing, T80U with accuracy 9 hit the first shot nearly every time.

About the Chaparall: in the decision between buying a vet4 Chap or a vet2 Chap and a supply truck to go with it, I always choose the supply truck. If your chaparall is needed, you'll definitly need the supplytruck for it to be useful at all and you'll gain the extra vet very quickly.

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Plus, you can use the supply truck for other stuff.

ATGM infantry is still deadly in buildings, where you don't get get to spot them after they shot.

Anyway, i mostly start with 2 leo's + support, whenever i come across 2 t80u's i frigging run. and wait till' i can set up a trap, or flank them.

i easely spend 250$ on infantry, without using infantry for rushing or anything.

the thing with choppers are, and mostly the havoc and apache, is that 20 seconds of no AA cover can make you lose the game. so don't get your AA sniped!

You pretty much answered it yourself. Also the VAB is faster because it can keep up with infantry in vabs on the roads. Offroad speed isnt that important for ATGM since if you have to move you can't fire anyway.

As soon as the game starts the roads are critically important for getting to those tasty 3 4 or 5 point command zones or 2 point reinforcement zones before the enemy does.



Always use the AMLs 20pts. Accuracy doesnt matter at all, zero vet them. 80pts for 4 mortars is just great, they cause all kinds of problems for pact. Especially if they use BMP1s. All of their AA is vulnerable also.



On the subject of chaps - since you will only really be using AA for recon sniping, the chaps bigger range is invaluable because it makes it extremely difficult to snipe with ATGM in the early game. Even if you miss, it forces the pact player to move it back and this is usually enough to cause him a headache.



This is true on both counts, but again you have to weigh up, Am I willing to sacrifice some flexibility in infantry (for pact it means I have to choose EITHER spets or vpzu) when I can use an equivalent atgm carrier that is more mobile and therefore more useful. Also you cannot hide the APC in a building.

Once the infantry is inside a building, once it fires - you might as well write it off as a loss as its going to either get barraged or forcefired by tanks.